Rejuvenating and Reutilising Spaces in the London Borough of Camden to Support and House Budding Enterprise

Camden Collective

dateJune 2009 - Now

Camden Collective is a registered charity, run by the Camden Town Unlimited Community Project, making use of abandoned, neglected and underused spaces as affordable offices and workspaces for up and coming young creative entrepreneurs in a pop-up hub scheme. Their latest office hub space, “Temperance” is located one the spaces found and leased through the partnership between the local council and Camden Town Unlimited. By housing their pop-up office projects primarily along the Southern end of Camden High Street– also hosting cultural arts events and career and business workshops, they are additionally helping to bring life and vibrancy back into that part of the high street and draw more permanent businesses to look to the area as a viable place for growth. Camden Collective is funded in part by government initiative grants, such as “The Mayor of London’s High Street Fund”, “The Mayor of London’s Regeneration Fund” and “The London Enterprise Panel and Mayor of London’s Growing Places Fund”, as well as local government funding. The project is a part of the larger city-wide scheme of development in London which has seen the mentioned governmental contributors collectively allocate in the region of £3.1m to the area as a whole for projects with goals such as these. However they also receive private donations and raise their own funds additionally through some of the activities and services they run.
So far they have successfully run three long term pop up community hubs, now on their fourth and fifth (“Temperance” and “Base KX”), and hosted numerous festivals, arts shows and pop up shops, and skills-based workshops showcasing the talents of the local businesses involved in the scheme. And they have an ongoing and thriving calendar for the year ahead.